Kevin Bresnahan

I have a few of these titles on CD. Have you searched around Amazon for any of them before making up this list? As for that Schildkraut date, if it wasn't released back when it was supposed to, I imagine it's unlikely to get released now. Kevin

I got my CD in yesterday. I spun the first few tracks and even my wife (not normally a fan of Jazz organ dates) liked what she heard. I plan to give it another listen today. Thanks to everyone for making this available. Kevin

Don Juan obviously wasn't talking about sex.

Do you think Aric noticed that thread over there?

Pug started posting on page 3 of this thread: http://stereocentral.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3623 but then someone started this thread: http://stereocentral.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3979 and some stuff came out there too. The one that had my jaw drop was on page 6 of that first thread. It really has me wondering about Steve. Look for one that starts "Wow. How do you really feel? For those of you who don't know why I quit as a Gort..."

True, but you have to admit that starting about a year ago, the place has gotten strange, to say the least. I think it started around the time Steve booted off the MFSL mastering engineers because they had the audacity to tell everyone that the DCC CD of Roy Orbison's greatest hits was made from 2nd gen masters. Rather than engaging them in a discussion about it, Steve simply banned them and any mention of the MFSL Roy Orbison CD. I've been told that if anyone tries starting up the topic again, their posts are removed and the thread starter is banned. BTW, both of those MFSL engineers have posted about the whole situation over on Stereo Central. They are not happy with Steve Hoffman right now.

Which posts were "gorted", Kevin? I'd like to give you a direct link, but their forum is down. It was the XRCD thread where I copied my post about Lee Morgan's "Tom Cat". Since I was simply copying my post from here, I prefaced it with, "As I said at the Organissimo forum". That little intro has been cropped. You quoted me later in the thread and they edited it out of there too. Kevin

I mentioned the Organissimo forum in one of my posts this week and today I see that it has been edited out (with no notation of an edit BTW) by a gort (a Hoffman forum moderator). No notification or explanation was ever made to me either - they just cut it out. Hans quoted me later and they edited it out of that too. The thing that bugs me the most is that all I said was, "As I posted over on the Organissimo forums". What is so offensive about that? The gorts don't want me to post that I am a member of other forums? I am getting tired of the over-active moderation over at that place. In the past few months, it has gotten pretty bad. This past week, one of their ex-moderators who went by the name of Pug started posting over on the Stereo Central forums. His behind the scenes stories are sad to read. It seems that Steve Hoffman is banning mention of anyone who even hints that anything he has ever mastered isn't "the best". Maybe some of our critiques over here have gotten back to him and "Organissimo" is now verboten? Kevin

I imagine Jack will chime in, but over on the Hoffman forums, the original poster has placed the "blame" on a pizza place that wants to move into Jack's storefront. Just what that street needs - another pizza joint. FWIW, it's also being said that the pizza from this place isn't very good so we're losing Jack's place for bad pizza.

I am so bummed right now I can't even begin to think about what it will be like without Jack's place. I learned so much stuff just standing around "shooting the shit" with Jack and his gang. The great "debates" held there always put a smile on my face. I still haven't been able to convince Charlie that I listen to anything other than Blue Note CDs.

Dmitry - if you go Friday, we may bump into each other.

Someone over on the Steve Hoffman forums has started a thread saying that Stereo Jack's in Cambridge, MA is closing in two months! Jack - is this true? Are you hanging it up? I have to make plans to visit a few more times before that final curtain goes down. Man, am I feeling old right now. Kevin

I do have "Baritone Madness" on LP as well as a CD-R I created to allow me to play this in my car. Kevin

I've actually got an extra copy of "Burn Brigade" that I bought by accident a few years back. I see Bee Hive LPs so rarely on the shelves of the record stores that I usually grab any I see. This was one of those, "Oh man, I've already got it" moments.

The owner of Bee Hive Records, Jim Neumann, has only licensed out one title from his catalog and that was Johnny Hartman's "Once In Every Life". I have "Baritone Madness" on LP and it's a decent date. Some of the tempos get so out of control that pianist Derek Smith can't seem to keep up.

Let me understand this... it was smoking and not working. You shut it off, let it cool down and now it *is* working? If this is the case you got very lucky. Most times, smoke=fried component and no amount of time will fix that. If it is now working, it may not for long. All that said, what may have happened is that you got a lot of dust/dirt/gunk in that vent and some of it decided to conduct and created a short-term short. Unplug the amp and open it up. Carefully vacuum the major dust/junk you see. Next, go to your local RatShack and pick up a can of compressed air. Blast the whole thing as best as you can. After, if any more dust clumps show their ugly faces, vacuum them up too. Kevin

Actually, it looks like the original Hello Kitty.

God Jim, I forgot about that one! Looks like the tom cat barfed up a fur ball.

I'm being told that Rotel's new RA-1520 is very nice. Unfortunately, it also lists for around $1,000 dollars. It has 60 watts/chan, a MM phono input, 3 line-level inputs and two tape loops (making 5 line-level inputs total).

I was in Bull Moose Music the other day and I found a cheap(er) copy of the XRCD of Morgan's "Tomcat" so I figured I would give it another try. I've had the Ron McMaster CD for years but rarely listen to it. The sound is very good, much better than the old McMaster CD and if it's a favorite of yours, I would definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, this date has never been a favorite of mine. I never bought into the whole "this sat on the shelf because Blue Note wanted Morgan to get out another Sidewinder" stuff. I always felt Jackie McLean was really off on this date. He has a few flubs in almost every solo, even blowing some obnoxious clams in 3 of the 5 tunes. The playing just sounds loose to my ears. Even Lee seems blasé, often getting behind the beat by more than usual and doing that half-valving stuff all the time. It's almost like he's running out of ideas. Tyner and Blakey keep the date going and for their playing alone, the CD is a keeper. But I doubt it'll get into the player before many of Lee's other dates. Given what I've read about Alfred Lion's standards, I think it's more likely that the overall level of play held this session back rather than a need for another "Sidewinder".

TOCJ-8xxx ? Is this a series I missed? Ahh heck, typo. I meant TOCJ-4xxx - the BN Works series. I really like the sound of these CDs more than any other. The SACDs sound fine too. The only problem I have with the SACDs is the extremely low levels. It's much better than cranked up levels but Hoffman went too far the other way. It makes it impossible to use them in a shuffle player. If you set the volume for a "normal" CD and one of these new Hoffman remasters come on, you can barely hear it. Kevin

Here, we CAN discuss Steve Hoffman's work, both the good and bad aspects of it. On the Hoffman forums, if you even hint at a negative aspect of something Hoffman did, you'll likely find your posts deleted and your account locked. It's actually a bit sad at how much of this goes on. Steve Hoffman's forums are really all about promoting Steve Hoffman and not really about discussing the good & the bad. I like several RVGs. I don't like several RVGs. There are some that have too much midrange. Some that seem to have a lot of high end. But there are some, like Pete LaRoca's "Basra", that simply sound phenomenal. I like the new XRCDs as well. However, in the first batch of 4 (which I bought), I had two of the titles on a TOCJ-8xxx CD and to my ears, they were nearly identical. I even had my daughters, with their young ears, listen to a few tracks and they couldn't really find a big difference.

I got music for Christmas - I finally have speakers from B&W's Nautilus line. I got the entry-level 805s on stands. The guy I got them from had new Diamond tweeters from the current 800 series installed by B&W. They sound beautiful. A little light on the bass (to be expected) but not a big problem with most of the Jazz I listen to. I also got Columbia's "Kind of Blue" box with 2 CDs, 1 DVD, an LP and book.

I'm in. I was just spinning "In Memorandom" last night. Kevin

Technically, a 1955 recording is no longer a bootleg in the EU. It's public domain there. Anyone can distribute it in the EU.